Trump positioned himself as a more credible presidential candidate than Cruz, the Texas senator who casts himself as a principled lawmaker but whom critics call inflexible.
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In the homestretch in Iowa, Cruz is beginning to tout that he’s more electable in November than Donald Trump is against Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. reacts while listening to a supporter at a campaign event, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Kellyanne Conway, president of Keep the Promise I, said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Trump has raised questions about Cruz’s eligibility to become president of the United States because of his birthplace.
For Republicans, the close contest between Cruz and Trump for first place reflects a growing if grudging acceptance among GOP leaders that one of the two may be the party’s nominee. The poll finds that a broad swath of GOP voters (55%) say they feel completely unrepresented by the government in Washington, and among those voters, Trump holds a 47% to 19% lead over Cruz.
Clinton and Bernie Sanders, locked in an unexpectedly tight race, planned to deliver their final-stretch pitches Monday evening in a televised town hall forum.
The poll also revealed that 51 percent of likely Republican voters will vote in the New Hampshire primary election this February and generally, 61 percent of the voters are “extremely interested” in the 2016 presidential elections.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was polling third, more than 15 points behind Cruz, followed by neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Cruz, a first-term senator from Texas, met voters in Manchester, Iowa to tell them “we’re in the final sprint”. Clinton supporters have long maintained their candidate will have an advantage in southern states that vote later in the primary schedule and that could counterbalance success by Sanders in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Clinton’s campaign sought to revive a debate about gun control, building on her previous criticism of Sanders’ record of backing legislation granting gun manufacturers legal immunity. “And he never will, and that’s OK because we got to do something folks because it’s not working”, said Trump, pointing to the crowd and referring to the protestor.
Lowman Henry, Mr. Cruz’s Pennsylvania campaign chair, fired back that “mushy moderate” Republican nominees have repeatedly failed. If your preferred candidate’s name isn’t on the list, it’s because they, well, aren’t going to win. That’s misleading. IL is following routine procedures for resolving ballot challenges against five presidential candidates, including Cruz.
It may be that members of the Republican establishment, in their trolling of Cruz, don’t address Trump’s own electability because they recognize it for what it is. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?”
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He also said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a “wonderful woman” who “likes Trump better” than Sen.
